Stoic Week 2018 Demographics Report by Tim LeBon

One main activity of the Modern Stoicism organization is carrying out research on the impact of adopting Stoic practices, perspectives, and principles on those who do so. Every year we run the Stoic Week online class, and we also gather valuable data through the surveys before and after participants engage in the class. Tim LeBon is our lead quantitative researcher, and he does invaluable service in compiling and interpreting the data collected, producing a set of Stoic Week Reports. This is the first report for this year.

Stoic Week is over, we hope you enjoyed it and found it helpful. This is the first in a series of articles reporting on what we learnt from it. Today we have answers to the following questions

How many people took part? Were there more men or women? Which gender is more Stoic?

How old are the participants of Stoic Week? Do you get more Stoic as you get older?

Which countries took part and which countries are the most (and least) Stoic?

Do people take part in Stoic Week more than once? Are people more Stoic the more times they do Stoic Week?

Why do people take part in Stoic week?

How many people took part? Were there more men or women? Which gender is more Stoic?

Gender

Total

2018

%

2017

%

2016

%

Average SABS score

2018

Male

2283

62

65

66

373

Female

1375

37

34

33

368

Decline to state

27

1

1

1

(364)

Other

21

1

0.5

–

(383)

Table 1: Stoic Week 2018 by gender (*Percentages in this and other tables may not add up to 100% due to rounding)

More people completed the Stoic Week questionnaires than in 2017. 3899 people did so, an increase from 2860 in 2017 which was more than the 1798 in 2016. This was despite a longer SABS questionnaire to complete and the requirement to ask for GDPR consent. 3555 did not finish the questionnaires although they started and only 196 denied consent. This gives a total figure for 7650 people who accessed the questionnaires.

The ratio of males to females was 62% to 37%. This compared with 65% to 34% last year showing a slight increase in number of females talking part.

Men were marginally more Stoic then women as measured by SABS scored, though those who identified as “Other” ((admittedly a very small sample) were the most Stoic.

How old are the participants of Stoic Week? Do you get more Stoic as you get older?

Age

2018

%

2017

%

2016

%

Average SABS score 2018

Over 65

7

–

–

381

56-65

14

17 (was over 55)

13 (over 55)

381

46-55

20

18

17

375

36-45

22

22

21

372

26-35

23

27

25

366

18-25

13

15

22

366

Under 18

1

1

1

(369)

Table 2: A wide range of ages take part in Stoic Week. It does seem that you get more Stoic as you get older.

Which countries too part and which countries are the most (and least) Stoic?

Country

No

%

Average SABS Score

United States

1388

37

382

United Kingdom

832

22

363

Canada

310

8

377

Australia

158

4

376

Germany

155

4

356

Russian Federation

75

2

346

Netherlands

68

2

358

France

61

2

370

Spain

39

1

372

Ireland {Republic}

38

1

384

Sweden

34

1

364

New Zealand

31

1

363

Switzerland

31

1

361

Brazil

30

1

366

South Africa

29

1

379

Italy

23

1

370

Ukraine

22

1

344

Denmark

19

1

364

Poland

19

1

368

Belgium

18

0

369

China

17

0

376

India

17

0

376

Argentina

16

0

374

Finland

16

0

355

Austria

15

0

369

Portugal

15

0

377

Japan

14

0

376

Mexico

13

0

386

Norway

13

0

372

Czech Republic

12

0

335

Israel

12

0

363

Singapore

11

0

402

Table 3: Stoic Week 2018 by country

For the first time we obtained specific country data. Table 3 shows all countries with more than 10 participants in Stoic Week. Of these, the most Stoic were Singapore, Mexico, the Irish Republic and the United States. Least Stoic were the Czech Republic, the Ukraine and the Russian Federation.

Do people take part in Stoic Week more than once? Are people more Stoic if they’ve taken part a number of times?

Number of times participated in Stoic Weeks previously

2018%

2017%

2016

%

SABS

0

73

79

77

366

1

17

13

14

384

2

6

5

6

396

3

3

2

3

399

4 or more

2

1

1

423

Table 4: Stoic Week 2018 : Previous participation

More than 70% of participants are first-timers, but those who do take part appear to be significantly more Stoic as a result.

How much do participants say they know about Stoicism?

Knowledge of Stoicism

2018

2017%

2016 %

SABS

None

10

9

11

348

Novice

28

30

33

359

I know a bit

42

41

39

374

I know quite a bit but not an expert

19

19

16

398

Expert

.8

0.5

1

429

Table 5: Stoic Week 2018

Most people say that know a bit about Stoicism, which as many as 10% doing Stoic Week without knowing anything about it. There is a strong association between how much people know about Stoicism and how Stoic they are according to the SABS.

Identification with being a Stoic

2018

SABS

Definitely not a Stoic

6

335

More not a Stoic than a Stoic

10

347

Neutral or I don’t know

37

356

I am more a Stoic than not a Stoic

38

388

I consider myself to be a Stoic

11

421

Table 5: How Stoic do participants rate themselves? How closely does this connect with their SABS score?

For the first time, we asked people to what extent they identified as a Stoic. Interestingly, about the same number are neutral as think they are more Stoic than not Stoic. A relatively small number consider themselves to be a Stoic whilst as many as 6% are doing Stoic week despite definitely not being a Stoic, which is perhaps surprising.

Why did people take part in Stoic week?

Below is the “word cloud” for the reasons given for taking part in Stoic Week.

We should be careful, however, about drawing conclusions like “More than 70% of participants are first-timers, but those who do take part appear to be significantly more Stoic as a result.” It may well be that their stronger Stoic attitudes motivated them to participate in the Stoic Week program more frequently.